JP4192998B2 - Game equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a gaming device such as a pachinko machine or an arrangement ball, and more particularly to a gaming device that displays a moving image according to a gaming situation and enhances the gaming property.

  Conventionally, this type of gaming device has improved its gaming performance by displaying various images, but in recent years, the amount of information that can be displayed has increased dramatically by using a monochrome or color liquid crystal panel or LED panel. Is increasing. For example, imitating a slot machine, driving a liquid crystal panel or LED as if three drums on which numbers and patterns are drawn are rotating, and a specific situation such as a jackpot by matching numbers and patterns Proposals have been made to create or display a unique video along with sound during a big hit. Such a changing display is highly effective in appealing to the player's vision, and is effective in enhancing the gameability of the gaming device.

  Therefore, this type of gaming device is required to have more realistic and various video display functions, and not only a function for detecting the gaming status of the gaming device but also display capability (display area, The number of colors, resolution, etc.) are also improving year by year.

  However, the area for storing the program and data of the game control unit that inputs and monitors the gaming status of the gaming device from the request for fraud prevention in the gaming device is extremely limited, and is sufficient within the limitation of the memory space. There was a problem that video display could not be realized. In addition, the game control unit is usually limited in data that can be fetched from the outside, and cannot receive data even from the display unit side. Therefore, it is difficult to instruct the display contents to be changed in consideration of the display and the game situation, and to move the image in a timely manner.

  For this reason, this type of conventional gaming device increases the display unit by using a plurality of dots as one pixel, even if the display unit is composed of precise pixels such as a liquid crystal panel. It is usual to display only. In addition, since a large amount of information is required to display a smooth video, the display is sufficient to satisfy the player because it is only a fragmentary image display such as repeating a monotonous image or frame-by-frame. A gaming device having a function has not been provided yet.

  The gaming device of the present invention is made for the purpose of solving such problems and realizing a real and high-speed video display function that can satisfy the player sufficiently while satisfying the required specifications from prevention of fraud. Was adopted.

The gaming device of the present invention is a gaming device provided with a display unit that performs display according to the gaming situation,
A main control unit for controlling the operation of the gaming device and outputting a control command for controlling the display unit;
Includes a display storage means for storing a plurality of display control data for displaying a moving image on the display unit, and a sub-control unit which displays a moving image on the display unit based on the control command,
The main control unit
The main control unit is electrically connected to the sub control unit via an output-only interface so as to output the control command in one direction to the sub control unit,
The control command is composed of a predetermined number of data, and the predetermined number of data is used to specify one of start information indicating the head data in the predetermined number of data and the plurality of display control data Specific information,
Determination means for periodically determining the presence or absence of data constituting the control command to be output;
Output means for outputting the data to be output to the sub-control unit when it is determined that there is data constituting the control command to be output by the determination means;
The sub-control unit
When the predetermined number of data is input and it is determined that reception of the control command is completed, the control command is specified based on the predetermined number of data, and the display control according to the specified control command is performed. Data is read from the display storage means, and a moving image based on the read display control data is displayed on the display unit,
When the moving image is displayed on the display unit, image information for one screen of the display unit is generated, and the moving image is generated by continuously outputting the image information for the one screen to the display unit. Can be displayed,
The display storage means has, as display control data for displaying the moving image, an image between an image of one screen of the display unit and an image of the next one screen continuous with the image. Store the changing part as difference information,
The sub-control unit further includes
When image information for one screen of the display unit is newly created based on display control data corresponding to the specified control command, which one of the images for one screen already output to the display unit is selected A determination means for determining whether to change the area;
The gist of the invention is that it comprises image creation means for creating image information for a new screen to be displayed on the display unit based on the judgment by the judgment means and the difference information .

  In the first and second gaming devices of the present invention configured as described above, a moving image display instruction corresponding to the gaming situation is unilaterally output from the main control unit to the sub-control unit. The display unit of the sub-control unit accesses the storage unit based on this moving image display instruction, reads out information necessary for configuring a moving image according to the game situation, and displays the moving image on the display unit.

  In order to further clarify the configuration and operation of the present invention described above, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pachinko gaming apparatus 1 as an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the gaming part DP, and FIG. 3 is a back view of the pachinko gaming apparatus.

  As shown in the figure, this pachinko gaming apparatus 1 has a front frame 4 mounted on the front surface of a machine frame 2 so as to be freely opened and closed. A glass door frame 6 and a front plate 8 are mounted on the front surface of the front frame 4 so as to be freely opened and closed. The game board 10 is detachably mounted on the back surface of the front frame 4 via a mounting frame (not shown).

  On the surface of the game board 10, there are provided guide rails 11 for guiding the fired pachinko balls, and the game section DP surrounded by the guide rails 11 includes a plurality of ordinary winning holes 12, A first-type starting port 13 and a grand prize winning port 14 are provided, and an out port 15 is provided at the bottom of the game board 10. The first type start port 13 is provided with a normal winning sensor 13A for detecting a winning situation of a pachinko ball. The jackpot 14 is provided with a jackpot drive unit 14B that creates a state in which a movable piece is opened when a jackpot condition is satisfied, and a pachinko ball can easily enter. A big prize sensor 14C for continuing (so-called V prize) and a ten-count sensor 14A for detecting that ten pachinko balls enter here and stop the jackpot situation are provided.

  A liquid crystal display panel 16 configured by using a 4-inch color TV liquid crystal display is provided at a substantially central portion of the game board 10. That is, the liquid crystal display panel 16 employs 2: 1 interlaced scanning as in the case of a normal TV display, and has a function of inputting an image signal of 60 frames per second and displaying it. Yes. That is, the liquid crystal display panel 16 of the present embodiment uses a normal liquid crystal television unit as it is. Accordingly, if a signal for one frame is transmitted to the liquid crystal display panel 16 within 16.67 msec, a clear color image equivalent to that of a normal TV can be dynamically displayed.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the display content of the liquid crystal display panel 16 of this embodiment is roughly divided into three areas in the normal gaming state, the upper part is a message line 16A, the center is a special symbol display part 16B, and the lower part is The hold number display portion 16C is provided. The upper message line 16A is displayed so that a message corresponding to the current gaming situation flows. In addition, a special symbol representing a game situation such as a big hit or miss is rotated and displayed on the special symbol display portion 16B in the center over three digits. Further, the number of the pachinko balls that have won the first type start port 13 and have not yet been used for the rotation of the special symbol display unit 16B, the so-called number of reservations, is left in the lower display number display section 16C. Up to four images can be displayed by sequentially reversing the display.

  As other display devices, the pachinko gaming apparatus 1 is provided with a jackpot lamp 17A for displaying a jackpot and a gaming operation lamp 17B for displaying that a game is in progress (see FIG. 1).

  A hitting ball supply tray 19 for guiding the inserted pachinko balls one by one to the firing position (not shown) is attached to the front surface of the front plate 8. In addition, an operation handle 20 for launching a pachinko ball at a launch position to the game unit and a lower ball receiving tray 21 for collecting surplus prize balls of the hitting ball supply tray 19 are provided below the front frame 4. The operation handle 20 controls the resilience by the ball hitting motor 26.

  As shown in FIG. 3, a game board control device 30 is attached to the center of the back surface of the game board 10. This gaming board control device 30 generally manages the gaming situation of the pachinko gaming device 1 in general. That is, the game status of the pachinko gaming machine 1 is determined from the operation status of the operation handle 20, the detection output of the winning sensor 13A, the ten-count sensor 14A, and the like, and the jackpot drive unit 14B, the liquid crystal display panel 16, The operation of the lamp 17A, the game operation lamp 17B, the hitting motor 26, a speaker (not shown), and the like are controlled.

  In addition to these devices, the pachinko gaming apparatus 1 includes a normal winning ball detection device that collectively detects the pachinko balls won in the winning openings 12, 14 or the start opening 13, a mechanism for conveying the winning balls and out balls, and the game General equipment such as various other lamps, speakers, and fraud detection devices for informing the situation is provided, but detailed description of these general device configurations is omitted.

  Next, the configuration and operation of the game board control device 30 will be described. As shown in FIG. 5, the game board control device 30 is composed of a power supply unit 33, input / output interfaces 35A and 35B, centering on a one-chip microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as MPU) 31 incorporating an arithmetic logic unit, ROM, RAM and the like. And an output interface 35C and the like. In addition, a crystal oscillator Xtal is externally attached to the MPU 31, which makes it possible to measure the elapsed time with high accuracy, and interrupt control using an interval timer using this is performed.

  The power supply unit 33 is a circuit for generating three types of power supplies VE, VD, and VCC by inputting 24 volt AC from the outside. The power supply unit 33 is a diode stack 41 that generates a power supply VE by full-wave rectification of 24 volt AC, and further smoothes the stack to generate a DC high-voltage power supply VD, and electrolytic capacitors C1 and C2 and a diode D1, DC The regulator 43 is configured to generate a stabilized power supply VCC of 5 volts stabilized from the high voltage power supply VD. Various voltage sources obtained by the power supply unit 33 are used as electric power of the electrical components of the game board of the pachinko gaming apparatus 1.

  The input / output interfaces 35A and 35B and the output interface 35C are configured by normal interface circuits for enabling input / output of signals between the MPU 31 disposed in the game board control device 30 and various electrical components disposed separately. . Therefore, the electrical circuit is determined according to the electrical characteristics of the MPU 31 and various other electrical components that perform signal input / output, and a known chattering prevention circuit, waveform shaping circuit, level shift circuit, hold circuit, etc. are appropriately combined. Consists of.

  The gaming board control device 30 configured as described above can be easily connected to the jackpot driving unit 14B, the ball hitting motor 26, etc., including the lamps such as the jackpot lamp 17A and the game operation lamp 17B provided separately. For this purpose, a connector CN1 is prepared.

  The 9 bits (P20 to P28) of the output port of the MPU 31 are connected to the display unit 50 by the flat cable FC via the open collector type output interface 35C and the connector CN2, and are used for controlling the liquid crystal display panel 16. Used for display command output (data 8 bits and strobe 1 bit). Further, in order to supply power to the display unit 50 side via the connector CN2, the DC high voltage power supply VD generated by the power supply unit 33 and the stabilized power supply VCC of 5 volts are connected to the connector CN2 together with the ground line. The flat cable FC is also used as a power line.

  In the display unit 50, in addition to a normal liquid crystal panel driver 52 for driving the liquid crystal display panel 16, a sub CPU 54 and a display ROM 56 for storing information in a nonvolatile manner are arranged. Here, the sub CPU 54 is a microcomputer that appropriately reads and executes the display control program stored in the 128 Kbyte area of the display ROM and the display control data stored in the 256 Kbyte area. A display command input in units of 7 bytes input from the panel control device 30 is interpreted based on a display control program stored in the display ROM 56, and necessary display control data is obtained from the display ROM 56 based on the interpretation result. Is output to the liquid crystal panel driver 52.

  Next, display control using display commands will be described. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the data format of a display command sent from the MPU 31 of the game board control device 30 to the sub CPU 54. As shown in the figure, the display command is information on a gaming situation consisting of a total of 7 bytes. The first byte is start information ST informing the start of the display command, and 1 byte (8 bits) of unused information in the following 6 bytes of information, for example, 8 bits are all “1”. It consists of a bit string “11111111”.

  The second to fourth bytes are symbol 1 information Z1, symbol 2 information Z2, symbol 3 information Z3. As described above with reference to FIG. 4, in the present embodiment, the special symbol display section 16B of the liquid crystal display panel 16 has three rows of special symbols (in this embodiment, a total of 10 types of numbers from 0 to 9 and 5 other symbols). 15 types) are displayed as if they were rotating. The combination information of these three-digit special symbols has the meaning of determining the occurrence of jackpots and is one of the important game rules of the pachinko gaming machine 1. Therefore, the main management is left to the MPU 31 of the game board control device 30, and the sub CPU 54 adopts a configuration in which only the display faithful to the command from the MPU 31 is executed.

  Therefore, 3 bytes from the 2nd byte to the 4th byte are used, and the symbol information of the special symbol to be displayed in each digit of the special symbol display unit 16B is used for the upper 4 bits, and the lower 4 bits are used for the special symbols. The display position offset information is sent out to make it appear as if the symbol is rotating. In this embodiment, 15 types of special symbols and 16 levels of display for rotation display can be displayed, so the upper 4 bits represent 0 to 14 and the lower 4 bits represent 0 to 15 information. To do.

  The fifth byte is information representing the big prize information C / R. In the present embodiment, the game rule of the pachinko gaming apparatus 1 is as follows: “When the 10 winning pachinko balls enter the big winning opening 14 at the time of the big winning, the situation of the big hit is stopped. However, a predetermined point before the stop condition occurs When a pachinko ball passes (V prize), the jackpot situation is continued up to a maximum of 16 rounds. " In order to detect such conditions, the tencount sensor 14A and the big prize sensor 14C are provided as described above, and the detection signals are input to the MPU 31. Further, since this type of game situation has a great significance for the player, it is preferable to visually display it on the liquid crystal display panel 16. Therefore, ten count information 0 to 10, which is the detection status of the ten count sensor, is transmitted using the upper 4 bits of the fifth byte, and round numbers 0 to 15 are transmitted using the lower 4 bits.

  The sixth byte is holding information RZ. The hold information RZ is any information from 0 to 4 in the game rules, and the amount of information may be small. Therefore, the upper 4 bits are not used, and the hold numbers 0 to 4 are transmitted using the lower 4 bits.

  The final seventh byte is scene information SC, which represents the current game scene. As is clear from the above description, the pachinko gaming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is roughly divided into two scenes, that is, a normal game scene and a jackpot scene. In addition, each scene includes a game scene at a finer level, such as a special symbol changing or a so-called V prize that promises to continue the jackpot. The player of the pachinko gaming apparatus 1 enjoys the game by enjoying such various scenes, and it is preferable that a visual display corresponding to each scene is made. Therefore, the MPU 31 transmits the current game scene determined from the detection signals of the various sensors to the sub CPU 54 as the last byte of the display command.

  FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of scene information for explaining the details of the scene information SC transmitted as the information of the seventh byte. As shown in the figure, the upper 4 bits of the scene information SC are information indicating whether it is a normal game scene or a jackpot scene, the most significant bit is not used, and the lower 3 bits are “101”. Represents a normal game scene, and “010” represents a jackpot scene.

  The lower 4 bits are information for specifying more detailed game scenes of the game scenes roughly classified by the upper 4 bits. When all of them are “0”, the standby display that does not require the special symbols to be rotated is displayed. Indicates the state. When only the least significant bit is “1”, a winning of a pachinko ball is generated at the first type start port 13 and a symbol variation state in which a special symbol must be rotated is displayed. When only the second bit is “1”, two digits of the special symbol have the same numerical value (for example, “7”), and a possibility of occurrence of jackpot has occurred (hereinafter referred to as reach state) This shows the state where has occurred. When the lower 4 bits are “0011”, this indicates a state where a hit determination is being made to determine whether or not the three digits of the special symbol are “7”.

  When any of the upper 3 bits of the lower 4 bits is “1”, it is used as information for specifying the jackpot gaming scene whose upper 4 bits are “X010” in more detail. . When the lower 4 bits are “0100”, a fanfare is flowing from a speaker (not shown) immediately after the occurrence of the jackpot. When the lower 4 bits are “0101”, it indicates a state in which a big prize release is being executed. When the lower 4 bits are “0110”, it indicates a state in which a V prize is generated in which the jackpot is continuously executed. When the lower 4 bits are “0111”, it is stored that the V winning has occurred and the next big winning release is reserved. When the lower 4 bits are “1000”, this indicates an interval state between the big prize release and the next round big prize release. When the low-order bit is “1001”, it indicates a state in which all the big winning open rounds are executed, that is, a so-called normal end (called final effect 1), in the end state of the big winning open. When the lower 4 is “1010”, it indicates the so-called puncture end (referred to as the final effect 2) in which all the big winning open rounds have not been executed, although it is the end state of the big winning open.

  Note that stop information (the so-called stop bit) indicating the end of communication information is provided for communication between ordinary computers, but in this embodiment, start information ST and information of the second byte to the seventh byte following the start information ST are provided. The end of the display command information can be clearly determined from the code system to be expressed, and such special stop information is omitted.

  The display unit 50 that receives the display command in the data format as described above needs to rewrite the contents of the VRAM built in the liquid crystal panel driver 52 in order to display an image corresponding to the display command on the liquid crystal display panel 16. The capacity of the VRAM to be controlled is determined by the number of pixels and the number of display colors of the 4-inch color TV liquid crystal display constituting the liquid crystal display panel 16, but is large for natural high accuracy and multicolor display. VRAM capacity (S [bytes]) is required. Moreover, in order to express a so-called moving image in which the image changes smoothly, the capacity (S [bytes]) is required for each frame, and the capacity (S × 60 [bytes]) is indispensable for a one-second moving image. It becomes.

  However, as described above, the display ROM 56 of the display unit 50 has only a 128 Kbyte display control program area and a 256 Kbyte display control data area. Video display is impossible.

  In view of this, the display ROM 56 of the present embodiment skillfully stores a large number of high-accuracy and multi-color frame information using the following data compression technique. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of this data compression method. For example, if a winning occurs at the first-type start port 13 and the so-called number of hold is “1” is transmitted as hold information RZ (sixth byte) of the display command, this gaming status is indicated. In order to display visually, the leftmost display area of the number-of-holds display section 16C must be displayed in reverse video. At this time, only the rectangular area of coordinates (X1, Y1) to (X2, Y2) is different from the previously displayed display information. If the contents of the VRAM are rewritten only by the difference display information, the purpose is Reachable.

  Furthermore, when the number of holds “2” is received as the hold information RZ, the leftmost display area of the hold number display portion 16C has already been highlighted, so that the display area adjacent to the left need only be highlighted. . At this time, the coordinates to be inverted are simply changed to the rectangular areas (X3, Y3) to (X4, Y4), and the display information to be displayed at the locations is the coordinates (X1, Y1) to (X2, Y2). ).

  Similarly, in order to display 15 kinds of special symbols as if rotating on the special symbol display section 16B of the liquid crystal display panel 16 over three rows, for each of the 15 kinds of special symbols U as shown in FIG. The basic information U1 and the difference information U2, U3,..., U16 when the basic information U1 is offset by 1/16 (the hatched portion in the figure is a new display portion, and the double hatched portion is a display deletion portion) Is stored as display control data. Then, the display control program interprets the symbol information Z and determines which of the 15 types of basic information and the 16 types of difference information is to be displayed on which coordinates of the liquid crystal display panel 16. Therefore, even if the special symbol display unit 16B displays a special symbol having three digits as in the present embodiment, the storage capacity of the display ROM 56 is the storage capacity necessary for displaying the special symbol of approximately one digit. Is almost the same.

  In this way, the display content of the liquid crystal display panel 16 does not change randomly but changes while being governed by a certain rule. And the change of the display content based on the fixed rule is instruct | indicated from the game board control apparatus 30 as a display command. Therefore, in order to display a moving image that is faithful to the display command, basic information that is a basic image of the moving image displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 16 and a slight difference in information amount that is a difference between the basic information and the moving image. Information is stored in a 256 Kbyte display control data area of the display ROM 56, and a display control program for interpreting the area for displaying the basic information and / or difference information from the display command is a 128 Kbyte area of the display ROM. It is enough to memorize it. In the present embodiment, the image at the time of occurrence of the jackpot shown in FIG. 4, that is, the image when the player gazes at the liquid crystal display panel 16 most is adopted as the basic information.

  Next, in the pachinko gaming machine 1 configured as described above, a game situation reading program, a display command transmission program, and a display control program processed by the MPU 31 and the sub CPU 54 will be described.

  10 and 11 are flowcharts of a game situation reading program and a display command transmission program executed by the MPU 31. FIG. The MPU 31 starts processing of various programs described herein after executing a predetermined hard check when power supply is started and initial setting such as setting predetermined information in a storage area described later. .

  First, the game situation reading program will be described with reference to FIG. This program is an interrupt program that is repeatedly executed by the MPU 31 every 1 msec. When the MPU 31 enters the processing of this program, the detection signals of various sensors such as the winning sensor 13A and the big winning sensor 14C are read, and the current big hit The current game situation PJ is recognized from the situation or the like (step 100). Then, the game situation PJ is stored in the game situation storage area of the RAM (step 110), and this program is terminated. By this program, the stored contents of the game status storage area of the internal RAM, that is, the latest game status PJ of the pachinko gaming machine 1 is updated prior to transmission of a series of data to the display unit 50.

  When the MPU 31 is started up, the game status PJ0 indicating that there is no special change such as winning or jackpot is set in the game status storage area of the internal RAM by the above-described initial setting process. .

  The display command transmission program shown in the flowchart of FIG. 11 creates the above-described display command from the game situation PJ stored in the game situation storage area of the internal RAM by the processing shown in FIG. 10 and transmits this to the sub CPU 54. It is processed every 2 msec by the MPU 31. Upon entering the processing of this program, the MPU 31 increments the transmission byte counter CB (step 200), and determines whether or not the value of the transmission byte counter CB is 7 or less (step 210). This is because a display command consisting of all 7 bytes is transmitted one byte every 2 msec. When an affirmative determination is made in step 210, the display command CB indicated by the contents of the transmission byte counter CB is displayed. The second information is transmitted to the sub CPU 54 (step 220), and this program is terminated.

  On the other hand, when a negative determination is made in step 210, that is, when it is determined that transmission of all 7-byte display commands has already been completed, the latest game stored in the game situation storage area is accessed. The situation PJ is read (step 240), and the latest display command is created from the game situation PJ based on the rules described in FIGS. 6 and 7 (step 250). Since the display command transmission timing this time is the first transmission timing of the newly created display command, the start information ST, which is the first byte information of the display command, is output to the sub CPU 54 (step 260). ) The content of the transmission byte counter CB is set to “1” (step 270), and the program is terminated.

  As described above, the display command is transmitted in 1-byte units from the MPU 21 every 2 msec. The sub CPU 54 that inputs the transmitted display command executes the display control program shown in the flowchart of FIG. 12, so that the liquid crystal display panel according to the game situation PJ of the pachinko gaming machine 1 grasped by the display command 16 drive controls are executed.

  When a display command divided by 1 byte is input from the MPU 31, the sub CPU 54 starts processing of the display control program and stores the received display command (step 300). Then, it is determined whether or not all the 7-byte display commands starting from the start information ST have been prepared (step 310), and when the input of all the display commands has not been completed yet, the processing of this program is terminated. .

  On the other hand, if the start information ST is input, it can be determined that a display command of all 7 bytes has been input. Therefore, when it is determined in step 310 that the input of the display command of all 7 bytes has been completed, the display is continued. The VRAM rewriting process (step 320 to step 350) of the liquid crystal panel driver 52 corresponding to the command is executed.

  Step 320 is a step of selecting and reading display control data (basic information and / or difference information) in the display ROM 56 necessary for executing the image display requested by the display command. In the next step 330, the same display command is interpreted, and it is determined which area of the VRAM with the built-in liquid crystal panel driver 52 is used as the specified display control data. When the data update area and update data of the VRAM are determined in this way, a data string for VRAM update is created and output (step 340), and a series of processes are performed on the display commands of all 7 bytes (step 340). Step 350). Then, the current display command that has been stored for the above processing is deleted (step 360), and the processing of this program is terminated.

  That is, the sub CPU 54 reads the display control data stored in the display control data storage area of the display ROM 56 specified by the display command, and outputs this to the liquid crystal panel driver 52. The display ROM 56 It is possible to change the contents displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 16 in any way by replacing.

  According to the pachinko gaming machine 1 of the present embodiment described above, a complex color moving image can be displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 16 only by outputting a display command divided into 1 byte every 2 msec from the MPU 31. . That is, it is possible to develop on the liquid crystal display panel 16 real and diverse displays that can sufficiently satisfy the player while satisfying the limitation of the memory space of the MPU 31 that is a required specification for preventing fraud. The liquid crystal display panel 16 has the same specifications as a normal liquid crystal television, and can display a dynamic screen similar to a television. While it is impossible to directly output the image information of 60 frames per second required for the same moving image display as the television to the liquid crystal display panel 16 from the game board control device 30, the image information is displayed on the display unit. 50, the limitation of the memory space of the game board control device 30 and the restriction of data transfer between the game board control device 30 and the display unit 50 are eliminated, and dynamic image display is possible. It can be realized.

  In addition, in the pachinko gaming machine 1 of the present embodiment, various displays can be performed by only outputting data from the game board control device 30 to the display unit 50 without mutual exchange. Further, since the display data is repeatedly transmitted from the game board control device 30 to the display unit 50, the display of the display unit 50 is different from the game state recognized by the game board control device 30. Absent.

  Display control data stored in the display ROM 56 determines display contents such as actual display symbols, movement and rotation. Therefore, the MPU 31 can be used in common for a plurality of types of pachinko gaming machines, and by replacing only the display ROM 56, it is possible to cause the liquid crystal display panel 16 to execute completely different graphic expressions. In other words, since it is possible to easily separate the graphic display part having a strong fashionable user interface and the basic functional parts required for the pachinko gaming apparatus 1, the development period of a new pachinko gaming apparatus can be shortened. The effect of can also be produced.

  Furthermore, when a simple 7-byte display command is output from the MPU 31, graphic display corresponding to the display command is executed by the sub CPU 54 and the display ROM 56, so the load for graphic display of the MPU 31 is greatly reduced. The Therefore, it is possible to allocate much time of the MPU 31 to other program processing, or to adopt an inexpensive microcomputer as the MPU 31.

  The display unit 50 also uses the game rules of the pachinko gaming machine 1 skillfully and compresses and stores moving image graphics using the display control data as basic information and difference information. Therefore, an inexpensive microprocessor is provided in the sub CPU 54. It is possible to display a smooth moving image while adopting and clearing the limitation of the memory capacity for the display ROM 56. Since this basic information is an image at the time of occurrence of a jackpot, the image display content is initially reset every time a jackpot occurs, and even if a display shift due to the difference information occurs, this is surely eliminated. The image at the time of the big hit is an image that the player thinks that the liquid crystal display panel 16 is most closely watched. However, since the image is used as basic information, for example, a data error has occurred and the moving image display has shifted. Even so, there is nothing that makes players feel uncomfortable with this.

  In this embodiment, a unit for a 4-inch liquid crystal television is used as it is as the liquid crystal display panel 16. Therefore, a configuration in which a TV tuner is separately provided and switched to connection with the display unit 50, or a configuration in which a signal from the TV tuner is once input to the liquid crystal display panel 16 through the liquid crystal panel driver 52 after being input by the sub CPU 54. If necessary, it is possible to display a television program on the liquid crystal display panel 16 as necessary.

  In this embodiment, the basic information and difference information are stored in the 256 Kbyte display control data area of the display ROM 56, and the basic information is stored in the display control program stored in the 128 Kbyte area of the display ROM. In addition, by interpreting the VRAM area for displaying the difference information from the display command, only one type of display control data such as the number of reserved items and special symbols can be stored to greatly compress the information. This is that the game rule of the pachinko gaming machine 1 is “three drums on which the same special symbol is drawn”, and the basic information and difference information of the special symbol for one digit can be used. It is based on the configuration. Which of the videos that must be displayed in this way is used as basic information or difference information, and what functions the display control program has is an arbitrary design matter, and the game rules of the gaming apparatus to which the present invention is applied It can be freely selected taking into account functional restrictions from the viewpoint of fraud prevention.

  Also, instead of decomposing the moving image into basic information and difference information, the difference information of the image of the second frame from the image of the first frame, the information of the third frame from the image of the second frame, and so on. As in the case of image information,..., Moving image information can be stored in the ROM 56 sequentially in the form of difference information from the previous image, and the contents of the VRAM can be rewritten with the difference information. If the video does not include repetition and changes significantly, the image data compression efficiency cannot be increased even if it is divided into basic information and difference information. It is effective to store the difference information. The initial screen may be stored separately, or may not have the information of the initial screen and may be stored in the form of difference information. In the latter case, only a part of the image is drawn immediately after the start of image display, but the moving image is rewritten at high speed and eventually becomes a complete image.

  The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and it can be applied to not only pachinko gaming machines but also slot machines and other game machines. The present invention can be embodied in various modes that do not deviate from the above.

  As described above, in the first and second gaming devices of the present invention, the sub control unit executes the moving image display on the display unit according to the gaming situation grasped by the main control unit. That is, the functions of grasping the game situation and displaying the moving image are shared, and it is possible to satisfy both the restriction from the fraud prevention required for the main control unit and the request for enabling various displays.

It is a perspective view of the gaming machine which is one embodiment of the present invention. It is explanatory drawing which similarly shows the structure of the game part DP. It is the back view similarly. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a display example of the liquid crystal display panel 16. FIG. 3 is an electric circuit diagram of a gaming device centered on the gaming board control device 30; It is a data format explanatory drawing of a display command. It is a code system explanatory view of the scene information. It is explanatory drawing of the basic information and difference information at the time of a hold number display. It is explanatory drawing of the basic information at the time of the rotation display of a special symbol, and difference information. It is a flowchart which shows the game situation reading program which MPU31 performs. It is a flowchart which shows the display command transmission program which MPU31 performs. 4 is a flowchart of a display control program executed by a sub CPU.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Pachinko gaming machine 10 ... Game board 12 ... Normal winning opening 13 ... First-class start opening 14 ... Large winning opening 13A ... Winning sensor 14A ... Ten count sensor 14B ... Big hit drive unit 14C ... Large winning sensor 16 ... Liquid crystal display panel 30 ... Game board control device 31 ... MPU
35A, 35B ... I / O interface 35C ... Output interface 50 ... Display unit 52 ... Liquid crystal panel driver 54 ... Sub CPU
56 ... Display ROM

Claims (2)

In a gaming device provided with a display unit that performs display according to the gaming situation,
A main control unit for controlling the operation of the gaming device and outputting a control command for controlling the display unit;
Includes a display storage means for storing a plurality of display control data for displaying a moving image on the display unit, and a sub-control unit which displays a moving image on the display unit based on the control command,
The main control unit
The main control unit is electrically connected to the sub control unit via an output-only interface so as to output the control command in one direction to the sub control unit,
The control command is composed of a predetermined number of data, and the predetermined number of data is used to specify one of start information indicating the head data in the predetermined number of data and the plurality of display control data Specific information,
Determination means for periodically determining the presence or absence of data constituting the control command to be output;
Output means for outputting the data to be output to the sub-control unit when it is determined that there is data constituting the control command to be output by the determination means;
The sub-control unit
When the predetermined number of data is input and it is determined that reception of the control command is completed, the control command is specified based on the predetermined number of data, and the display control according to the specified control command is performed. Data is read from the display storage means, and a moving image based on the read display control data is displayed on the display unit,
When the moving image is displayed on the display unit, image information for one screen of the display unit is generated, and the moving image is generated by continuously outputting the image information for the one screen to the display unit. Can be displayed,
The display storage means has, as display control data for displaying the moving image, an image between an image of one screen of the display unit and an image of the next one screen continuous with the image. Store the changing part as difference information,
The sub-control unit further includes
When image information for one screen of the display unit is newly created based on display control data corresponding to the specified control command, which one of the images for one screen already output to the display unit is selected A determination means for determining whether to change the area;
A game apparatus comprising: image creating means for creating image information for a new screen to be displayed on the display unit based on the judgment by the judging means and the difference information . The gaming device according to claim 1 , wherein the gaming device is a pachinko gaming device.

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